At the moment:
1. Gran Turismo 2
2. Gran Turismo 3
3. Gran Turismo 4
4. Gran Turismo 6
5. Gran Turismo 5
6. Gran Turismo 1
7. Gran Turismo Sport
Will elaborate later, currently at work.
and I never did elaborate it until...NOW!
Except now I'm going to include GT7 and the side-games into the mix:
1. Gran Turismo 2 - It expanded on Gran Turismo 1 in terms of overall quality imo and in content. Yes, GT2 started out being buggy to where you could even lose your garage data for doing machine tests and there was a mismatched ai spawn code to resulted in things like a Vector M12 appearing in an endurance race for sub-300 hp cars or a Citroen Xantia appearing in a race full of lemans racers. There's a lot of glitches like that and it also doesn't have enforced restrictions.
However, what makes Gran Turismo 2 my favorite after all of these years are the fact the glitches give it character. Though I actually didn't deal with most of them since I grew up with Version 1.1. There were things like the GT40 on Rome I had to deal with, but I never had to deal with game-breaking glitches. What I got was the most content-heavy game on the PS1 I've seen (or probably ever) with a fun car and track selection. GT2 lost SSR11, but gained so many new courses in return where some have become classic tracks of their own such as Midfield Raceway and Apricot Hill. A lot of those new tracks introduced have become my favorites. The license tests were up to 10 of course, but GT2 didn't waste any time and let you jump in them right away. Either a short countdown or you just GO! Zoom, nail those tests now, the rest of the game waits for you!
and the best part of GT2 was that with little enforced restrictions, you could just start in whatever race you wanted just about. Depending on what licenses I do first of course. Based on that, I thought GT2 had some of the most fun replayability in the franchise. I just love coming back to this game to try different cars at the start alone. One playthrough with an A70 Supra Turbo, another with a Daihatsu Mira TR-XX, or a Miata.
2. Gran Turismo 3 - While GT3 has less content than GT4, I say the driving controls and physics make up for it. Sure, I don't have over 700 cars at my disposal, but the cars you can drive in this game felt well-used. The menus, racing, music, and the whole vibe of the game felt like it had energy in it. That energy just drove me the play this game over and over again, it's been a lot of fun engaging in races on Arcade Mode alone. Especially with the cars you could drive in it, which included race cars for the first time. The license tests could be challenging, but didn't overstay their welcome. The A.I. cars could really challenge you at the start, which honestly made the early events rather fun for me.
Basically, what's holding it back from number 1 for me is simply the content and of course the race length in the later half of the game. The professional mode events were just way too long for me and thus made things feel rather boring and demotivating to play. It was especially bad with those 10-race championships. Though in fairness, it would be because I would have OP cars at this point and use them to just stomp on the opponents. I could just nerf my cars or use slower ones for a challenge, but I never wanted to in fear of losing and then having to start the events again. That would probably be fun for replays I suppose. But yeah, those things are really the only things holding it back for me.
Which makes me wish PD back in 2002 instead of making GT Concept 2002 its own game, they just merged their ideas for that game plus content with GT3 instead. Had they done something like that and released it in North America; I think that GT3 would've been my #1 favorite GT game no doubt. Plus if they just shortened the pro league events a bit.
3. Gran Turismo 4 - The visuals are at their best here as far as PS2 games go, the cars looked like they could be the real thing from a distance. At least to kid me back then. Now though, I can see their flaws. The gameplay still has a lot of fun to be had and of course has its share of challenges from the driving missions to some of the license tests. GT mode just gave you so much to do and it was amazing for the first time; I could actually buy every car and fit it into my garage unlike the past games. and they would unlock the car in arcade model complete with all of the color options. Things like that, I loved as a kid and now.
However, if it weren't for the following issues; it would probably be my #1 favorite GT game today. The driving physics and controls are worse than GT3, especially the offroad events. Cars just don't feel quite right despite them being pushed by PD and race car drivers as realistic this time round. I honestly am not sure I buy that. The chase camera is okay, but why couldn't they still let us use the chase cam from GT3? I loved that camera (thank god a mod/cheat for it now exist). Lastly, there are parts of this game that are a slog to get through such as the license tests and 1-lap magic races (the actual driving is fun, but they made you sit through a long countdown to do these!).
4. Gran Turismo 1 - I honestly had my thoughts on this game move around a bit, but I think it's fine sitting here. It's the game that not only started it all, but was actually where I started my own journey with this franchise. A lot of this game still holds up for me suc as the visuals and the fun gameplay. The car selection was something that stood out imo since NFS and Test Drive were focused on sports cars and muscle cars; GT1 had some cars you would see everyday. Along with performance variants of those. I loved the slide mechanics on some cars including on the Viper GTS. The soundtrack released in the western games is still memorable to me from the intro song being the Chemical Brothers Remix of Everything Must Go to the Toyota Dealership theme. And then when I learned of the Japanese soundtrack, I found Isamu Ohira's early renditions of his signature songs to be excellent to listen to. The career mode is one of the shortest in the franchise due to of course being the first entry, but each race has its own charm.
It's in the #4 spot as while the physics and controls can still make fun gameplay, they do show their age a bit. Approaching corners in some cars just isn't as fun as in later entries. The car selection also has the heaviest bias towards JDM cars (which makes sense), but that hurts it a bit. Completing arcade mode becomes a bit of a slog as you basically have to win a race on every track in all 3 classes, making things feel repetitive.
5. Gran Turismo 6 - It's really similar to 5 except it got rid of things I hated about GT5 such as the level-up restrictions and making B-Spec mode it's own thing. The endurance events were just short-stints that lasted 20-30 minutes on average, but I didn't care about that as I'm not the biggest endurance fan in the first place. Endurance races are more fun to watch imo than actually do in a game. I'm sure I would enjoy myself more if I raced in an endurance race for real, but there's no way I would here. It also carried over a lot of the same issues from GT6 like having a dark shadow interior view for PS2 cars. There was very few events, but its seasonal event support on the other end was still good. The game introduced an improved track-path editor, but after 2 years of its release for some reason. Oh and it did a stupid thing by forcing you to buy a Honda Fit as a first car. I like the Fit RS, but forcing me to buy it first hurts the enjoyment a bit.
Like with GT5, the graphics have looked amazing as well as the lighting. I can't believe how well Polyphony excels with their lighting, it's just plain amazing in what they can do. While carrying over standard cars. GT6 had improvements made to them where now they had more customization than before. Some standard cars had improved models given to where they looked like premium cars barring an interior such as the Nissan R390, Mitsubishi FTO, Toyota AE86 twins, 70s Nissan Skylines and Zs, and the Jaguar XJ220. The improvements done basically made them sting a little less. It's still a flaw, but it's an improved flaw if that makes sense. The game would later include some fun customization options such as the custom rear wings (kinda like NFS Carbon's autosculpt), number plates, and paintable brake calipers. It brought back some cars I missed such as the Shelby Cobra Daytona and Ford GT40 Mk.1 Road Car along with adding new great cars including 4 GT3 cars, the Ferrari 250 & 288 GTOs, hot hatches like the Renault Megane Trophy RS and Ford Focus ST, and classic muscle cars like the Chevrolet Nova and Shelby GT350 Mustang. The game introduced Silverstone and Mount Panorama for the first time in the series. Along with that it brought back Apricot Hill Raceway and Midfield Raceway later on. While the track-path editor was late, it was also great. You could basically map out any track you want and add things like curves, arches, grand stands, and trees. I also loved the Sierra Time Rally event added later on, it was some pure, arcady fun.
6. Gran Turismo 5 - The game is basically in #6 because of partially the negative impact it made. I would say it's the worst numbered titled in the series now if it wasn't for 7 taking that crown. The game had so much promise with Kaz promoting great things about it only to basically dissappoint many players at launch. There was damage, but only a few cars had the detail of damage that was shown in trailers sadly. and the damage had to be unlocked. There was over 1,000 cars, but 80% of them were ported from the PS2 & PSP games. There was visual customization, but it was limited where there was no livery editor. Most of the good parts were restricted to the PS3 cars. The interior view was great, but only premium cars had it at launch. And when the standard cars got an interior, it was a black silhouette and it was even worse than on the PSP game. B-Spec mode was a downgrade and became it's own mode. They added fun rally events, but only added a few of them. NASCAR races were limited to a small amount. It was basically a case of it would do one amazing thing, then have an asterisk attached to it. Oh and the cars sounded like blenders and juicers.
With all of that said, the online racing of GT5 was a lot of fun. I have a lot of great memories just hanging out with people in online lobbies back then and doing fun races. The shuffle races were a blast. While the course creator was limiting on locations and having randomized layouts; that still helped bring some life in this game and kept it going. PD even used custom tracks for their seasonal events and some of those were a lot of fun. The music in this game was still a joy to listen to even though the cars weren't. Ignoring PS2 car models, the visuals and lighting of GT5 was still amazing. I think they still hold up well to this day in many cases. While the career mode wasn't as long as past GTs, I still found enjoyment in a lot of the events. I did like some of the special events including the rally events. Which made me wished they did more of those.
7. Gran Turismo Sport - The game at launch was something that did not interest me at all as it was just meant to be an eSports racing game only. Which honestly if you look at PD's history with GT5 & 6, this was a long time coming. They would focus so much at online racing with those games, so it was clear that's where Kaz wanted to take the series. Due to that though, you end up with a low car list at launch that while has some good cars in it lacks variety. It also for some reason still focused on Vision GTs despite the focus on eSports racing to where they put VGTs in it. So, there was not much of a single-player mode at launch.
After updates, GT Sport honestly became a more appealing game to me with adding cars both old and new to the series. Adding a GT-League mode and supporting it a good amount for 2 years along with being really good at content support. The car selection grew into a pretty solid list overtime. The driving physics were also a lot of fun for me and of course this was the first GT to introduce a livery editor. The livery editor while having flaws like not being able to make vinyl groups like in Forza is overall an amazing system. You can basically paint any car with whatever you want (as long as they're appropriate of course), which lead to some fun livery making. and even being able to recreate some of the most iconic racing liveries to appear in GT's past. Also thanks to the online focus, the online racing in GT Sport is a lot of fun. I even tried Sport mode a few times and found myself liking the competition. Especially since it didn't enable dirty driving as much as in Forza.
8. Gran Turismo 7 - Gran Turismo 7 still feels at the end of the day like a Gran Turismo game in the modern age, it is full of that GT charm. The car list brings back a lot of hits that were missed in previous games like the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. V, Nissan Silvia S15, Ford GT LM Spec II, and 1997 Castrol Tom's Supra. There was even more added with the dlc such as the Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak, my favorite Nissan Silvia (the 1996 K's Aero), and the Nissan Skyline Super Silhouette which was last seen in my favorite GT (GT2). The visuals as usual are top-notch, driving physics feel like some of the best out of any simcade I played, the ability to race against cars from your garage is amazing! It also has the best customization out of the whole series by carrying over GTS's livery editor with improvements (now being able to paint rear-windows and have custom windshield decals), having custom bumpers brought back from GT6, being able to have custom rear-wings, install tow-hooks, hood pins, change license plates, and even the grills on some cars.
So? WHAT THE HECK IS IT DOING HERE AT THE BOTTOM?! Well, BECAUSE PD JUST HAD TO CONTINUE THEIR MODERN NONSENSE, THAT'S WHY!!! Seriously, they decided to restrict engine swaps behind the daily excercises at launch, made the single-player career too short, did improve the A.I. only to keep those tougher opponents restricted to certain races in the game (why? I don't know), market it as a nostalgia trip only to do none of the classic GT things when it came out, make the worst prize system ever with the daily excercise (which could be fine have they actually made the prizes random and give us the ability to win more in a session like in Forza). They didn't have endurance events at launch and when they did add them; they made them one and done events in the missions! WHYYYY?! They also made a lot of races with low-paying prizes while making a lot of cars expensive as heck, which kinda hurts the fun of collecting when you have to spend sooo much time to do them. Not to mention making so that the most expensive cars would appear for a few days and then I have to wait weeks until seeing them again. Which reminds me of Forza Horizon's playlist exclusive prize cars, except it's worse because I now have to save up money for these. At least in Horizon, I just have to win a race or something to get them.
Basically, everytime Polyphony Digital did something amazing with GT7 or had a great idea in this game, they would fumble somewhere else. It feels like they just didn't want to make the best racing game of all time. Which is why I make this the worst, because I know what PD is capable of and they showed it in the past. But they are hard-set of not doing it!